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Have you ever heard the term “JJ DID TIE BUCKLE?” If you’ve ever been in the Marines, I’m sure you have. For the uninitiated, It’s an acronym for the 13 leadership traits that are instilled in every Marine:
There are a plethora of theories and opinions surrounding the topic of social media in the workplace. Maybe you are one of the business leaders that subscribe to this school of thought: “Social media hurts productivity in the workplace and only serves as a distraction."
Growing up we have been told over and over again that “Honesty is the Best Policy” and that the “The Truth is a Beautiful Thing”. Yet when it comes to trucking, are these “Golden Rules” always applied in your organization? I challenge you to take a walk around your office and listen to what your leaders are telling your most valuable assets.
Here’s a jaw-dropping employment dispute: a diabetic Walgreens employee on the verge of a seizure was recently fired for eating a bag of chips to ward off a hypoglycemic seizure. The on-duty employee paid for the $1.39 bag shortly thereafter, but was fired from her job under the zero-tolerance policy for shoplifting.
In our last blog post, we discussed social wellness models and their potential to motivate people to achieve personal health and fitness goals. But rather than just “talk the talk,” we thought it would be interesting to tell you about a few of our employees who have decided to put one platform to the test. At stake? $10,000.
The advent of new technologies has opened up a host of new ways of communicating. At this point, it’s pretty clear social media has moved beyond a fad stage – it is now a core element of the way we communicate with each other. While you’re probably using social media in one way or another, have you considered leveraging social media to enhance your wellness efforts?
In a recent blog on driver retention, we focused on increasing communication – not only with
your driver managers and department heads, but also by listening to your current drivers and their needs. Another crucial aspect of driver retention is investing (and not just monetarily) in your driver fleet. Sure, everyone would like to be paid more, but it goes beyond that. By making an investment in your driver fleet, you are demonstrating respect and appreciation for your people, something that goes a long way when it comes to retaining drivers.
OSHA publishes counts of violations by company, as well as incidence rates by geography and industry. Now, they’re publishing the safety & health incident rate of many individual companies. Through a simple search engine, interested parties can type in a company’s name and access high level accident and injury data of many US-based business.
As costs continue to skyrocket in employee benefits, many HR professionals are looking for creative and innovative benefits strategies that can help control costs while providing a service employees will truly appreciate.
“Concierge medicine” [also known as boutique medicine] is a growing trend in healthcare that has potential to be a major gamechanger for physicians, patients and employers alike. In a concierge approach, a doctor charges an annual fee in exchange for providing highly attentive, 24/7 medical care. While this style of healthcare is still in the minority, the benefits may be worth weighing when evaluating potential options for you and your company. In any case, this is something every HR professional should be aware of.
Traditional medicine – healthcare as most of us know it – operates on a fee-for-service basis. When a patient needs care, he makes an appointment, visits a doctor, and pays for the services delivered. Since insurance companies can negotiate who is considered “in network,” doctors may have to defer to the insurance company’s fee schedule when deciding what to charge for their services.
The trouble with the traditional approach is that it prioritizes volume. To make a reasonable profit, doctors usually have to schedule appointments every 15 minutes, and often serve upwards of 3,000 patients a year.
The result for the patient isn’t very pretty. Patients of a doctor stretched too thin may struggle to get an appointment when they need one on short notice. They spend longer in the waiting room than they do with an actual doctor. Worse still, if a doctor is rushing from appointment to appointment, they may not get the doctor’s full attention and have little medical advice around preventative care.
Concierge medicine takes a different approach. In this system, doctors charge an annual fee in exchange for providing highly attentive medical care available 24/7. Doctors work with many fewer patients, typically 10% of what doctors in a traditional practice would take on.
With fewer patients and a guaranteed source of income, concierge medical professionals can provide more comprehensive care for patients. They may be able to promise any number of services that just aren’t possible in traditional medicine – such as same day appointments, access to the doctor after hours and via email, and even making house calls when the patient is too ill to travel.
Beyond the added convenience, patients benefit from additional attention when it comes to discussing preventive health care and individual lifestyle issues. Due to time constraints, these issues are often pushed aside in traditional medical practices.
Employers are increasingly recognizing that healthy employees are essential to a healthy business. Reduced absenteeism and presenteeism have a major impact on profitability. Additionally, in a time when competition of talent is high, providing an innovative benefit package can be a major differentiator.
Concierge medicine typically does not replace an insurance program, but is used to enhance a benefit package that an employer offers. Most concierge medical professionals accept group insurance to cover the services they provide, such as tests, lab work, etc. Any services not covered by the insurance company are usually considered covered by the concierge practice’s annual fee.
Insurance companies rarely will pay for the annual fee itself, but this can usually be paid for from an employee’s HSA, HRA or FSA account.
Today's environment demands a creative approach to benefits programming, as cost shifting is not a sustainable way to manage health care spend. If the health of your employees is important to your business operations, concierge medicine is certainly worth exploring.
For more information on this and nine other "Innovative Benefits Strategies," download the free workshop recording.
HNI works with high-performing companies to help them address the hidden risks in their business and avoid The Insurance Dependency Trap. This is done by proactively DE-RISKING their business so they can be less dependent on insurance.
HNI also offers the basic services of insurance and employee benefits. HNI has offices in Milwaukee, Chicago, and Minneapolis.